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5 Foolproof Ways to Prevent Landing Page Abandonment

Driving traffic to your site is all well and good, but how do you turn that traffic into customers? To make your growing web traffic worth something (ahem, money?), the first step is to convert those visitors into leads, and landing pages are an efficient, low cost way to get that done.

But if you're noticing that some of your landing pages perform better than others, there are some logical explanations behind your underperformers. Let's take a look at the 5 most common reasons your site visitors click through to your landing page and then abandon it in a flash.

5 Reasonable Explanations for Landing Page Abandonment

1.) Your landing page didn't pass the blink test. The blink test refers to the first three seconds a visitor spends on any page of your website during which they orient themselves and glean what they can do on that page. The user clicked to your landing page with a vague idea of what they might find there, but in the first three seconds, it is your duty to make it abundantly clear what they will find on that page. You can do so by crafting a clear headline, call-to-action, and providing a form above the fold.

2.) Your landing page had too many distractions. If you only have three seconds to orient a new visitor, you need to let them focus! Remove all visual distractions such as Flash or animation, a navigation that lets them click away, and large and intimidating blocks of text. Instead, include a pleasant (but reasonably sized) image that is relevant to your offer, and make use of all those wonderful formatting tools like bullets, numbers, and bolded headlines to break up text.

3.) You didn't use actionable language. It's not that your readers aren't smart; just don't make them think too hard while they're on your landing page. Tell them exactly what to do by using verbs and explanatory language in your headlines and on your 'submit' button. Let's do a little compare and contrast. Which headline do you think will result in more conversions on a landing page?

Your How-To Guide

vs.

Download Your How-To Guide About Creating Content for the Holidays

If you guessed the second one, you're right on the money! It tells visitors explicitly what they should do on the landing page, and what they'll receive for doing it. Just be sure to explain the value of your offer with some brief copy after you write your awesomely actionable headline.

4.) Your form just wasn't worth the work. There's a delicate balance to strike between gathering enough qualifying information about your leads, and losing leads to excessively long forms. If you're not sure how many form fields are too many, start small and build up. Through the magic of A/B testing, you'll be able to find your sweet spot where neither leads nor information is compromised.

5.) Your offer didn't match your call-to-action (CTA). If your call-to-action was enticing enough to get a visitor to click through to your landing page, make sure what you actually offer aligns with the original CTA. You can prevent visitor disappointment by being as specific as possible with your call-to-action. If you're offering a how-to guide, mention what it's about in both the call-to-action and on the landing page. Use the same language so continuity is maintained throughout the conversion process.

If you're experiencing dismal conversion rates on your landing pages, do a quick check for these five common problems. Once all of your landing pages are in line with these best practices, you can fine-tune and A/B detailed aspects of your page like button color or page layout to get the best possible conversion rate from each landing page you produce.

Have you seen a lift in conversion rates from solving for landing page abandonment? What was your most common landing page offense?